The Who - Singles SHM-SACD Review thread

I'm actually finding myself really liking this version of MB- I have the shm-cd (not the sacd)

 

Me too! I just got my Singles shm set in today and am playing disc 1 right now!

 

I must have missed this. Magic Bus really doesn't sound very good on the Singles SHM discs. The version on the Japanese issue of Then & Now sounds much better.

 

Really? It sounds fine to me.

 

Really. The version on the SHM discs sounds like a poorly aligned copy in comparison. The high end is severely rolled off and there's hum not present on the T&N release.

I'd be surprised if much was done to it on Then & Now either, since the early take of I Don't Even Know Myself on that disc sounds very close to how it sounds on the SHM Two's Missing CD.

 

Here's the first minute from the Then & Now bonus CD and the SHM Singles CD. FLACs:

Magic Bus - Then And Now
Magic Bus - The Singles (SHM)

The transfer on The Singles is almost perfectly mono, which is a good thing (the channels on the Then And Now transfer aren't completely identical), but overall the sound is much worse.

 

Anyone?

 

I know I'm late on buying this as I just bought it today! Thanks for the info

 

Yeah... Then and Now sounds much better! Less muffled - much more pronounced top end.

 

I'm a Boy is the closest thing I have heard to the original 45, great stuff

I think AAA sounds terrible though, like Dolby B has been applied, it has no balls.

MB sounds good, it only has half the volume of Then and Now or Ultimate Collection,
so it's hard to A/B quickly

 

The hum has been removed from the Then & Now version. It can be heard quickly at the very beginning which is a telltale sign of a 50hz hum removal filter. Residual hum can also still be seen on spectral view. While I do agree the high end is rolled off on the SACD, I find the Then & Now version to be extremely bright. To the point of wondering if it has had pre-emphasis added at some point. The MB on the old Who Collection Volume Two CD also has this extremely bright sound. The hum is present on that version.

 

I don't think it's "extremely bright" at all. The original recording seems to have quite a bit of high frequency energy, which can be heard on most releases of the stereo mix. Also, I just happened to listen to a handful of LPs with the long version a few days ago, and they all seemed to have a high end that was closer to The Who Collection and Then and Now than The Singles.

I have a feeling what's on The Singles was a fake stereo tape folded down to mono, and the alignment of the tape and/or the fake stereo processing caused the high end to have problems when folding.

 

Just saying I personally find it very bright. Certainly could be a characteristic of the recording/mixing. I don't care for the muffled sound of the SACD either. I'll probably end up EQing the T&N or C2 version for a happy medium.

That's possible. It's also possible one was played back with dolby and the other not.

 

I don't think so. I believe utilizing Dolby A incorrectly results in much larger problems than utilizing Dolby B incorrectly.

 

Well, I'm playing this for the first time now (the SHM-SACD I mean) and I really love it. Great track listing, and I'm not enough of a fanatic to be bothered by the wrong mixes or whatever. I quite liked hearing this new (to me!) version of "Magic Bus" myself! It's just nice to have all of this in one place.

Once it gets past the first few songs, I find the sound to be very nice indeed too... but those first few are aren't exactly fantastic recordings to begin with are they?

Anyway, just thought I'd weigh in.

 

So....is the jewel case SACD that was recently issued the same mastering as the earlier release? I picked this up a few months ago and was just pulling it out to listen to it.

 

It is supposed to be the same mastering. No one has confirmed it one way or the other.

 

"[Special Priced 100 SHM-SACD Reissues] Uses the 2011 DSD master based on UK original analog tape (partially not feature the mastering)."

Looks like it's just a reissue of the existing SACD.